The invention relates to specific DNA sequences derived from the genome of papillomavirus HPV42, including the sequence corresponding to its entire genome, as well as recombinant DNAs, in particular vectors containing all or part of those DNA sequences which code for structural proteins of these papillomaviruses or parts of these proteins. The invention also relates to the cell cultures transformed by the said recombinant DNAs under conditions optionally enabling them to express the corresponding sequences derived from the HPV42 genome in the form of the corresponding proteins. Finally, the invention relates to diagnostic kits making use of some of the products defined above or those whose description follows and their novel uses, more particularly for the discrimination between benign genital epithelial lesions and lesions of the carcinoma or pre-carcinoma type induced by papillomaviruses.
Most of the 60 or more different types of human papillomaviruses hitherto identified are all epitheliotropic viruses presumed to be responsible for the induction of an abnormal growth of the infected tissue (1, 39). Depending on their tissue specificities and respective predominance in benign or malignant tumors, the types of human papillomaviruses (HPV) have been classed in different groups, for example low risk groups (HPV 6, 11) (2, 3), high-risk groups (HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 39, 57) (1, 4-8), genital HPVs and HPVs associated with epidermodysplasia verruciformis (HPV 5, 8, 19, 25, 47) (1, 9-11), etc. . With the objective of gaining a better understanding of their mutual relationship and, if necessary, of revealing the nature of their tissue specificities, it has also been suggested that sequence comparisons be made. However, attempts to establish correlations between certain characteristics of the virus and certain specific characteristics of their respective genomes have not really proved to be successful up to now. The demonstration of the difficulty of establishing such correlations is illustrated particularly by the result of the sequence studies which have been conducted on papillomavirus HPV42, which had already been isolated from vulvar papillomas, by the use of a DNA of the oral HPV32 type (12) as probe under conditions of low stringency (13). According to this last publication HPV42 proved to be present in 3.5% of the genital lesions which in most cases exhibited histological characteristics of condylomas or flat papillomas.